"A ministree?" Jenny asked. "Sammy, are you sure—?" But the cat was licking his paw, ignoring her.
So they all climbed into the center cup. One of the branches extended down to the ground so that Che was able to walk up it without much trouble.
They discovered good fruits on the tree, and found that the bark of the branches was spongy and comfortable to settle down on. A number of the big leaves hung low. Gwenny picked another and read it.
HAVE YOU CONSIDERED PROTECTING THE TREES OF XANTH?
She picked another. OUR MOST PRECIOUS HERITAGE IS OUR PLANT LIFE.
Hm. Were there random messages, or was there a pattern? She picked another leaf, randomly, and read it. WE URGE ALL FEELING CREATURES TO CONSERVE THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM.
"I think this tree is trying to tell us something," Gwenny said, showing the leaves she had picked.
"Well, it seems to be ministering to us," Che said.
"That is consistent with its identity. Perhaps it is also ministering to the environment of Xanth."
Gwenny thought about that, and decided it was all right. "Sammy was right," she said. "This is a good place to stay. And we should try to preserve the good plants of Xanth."
She picked another leaf. THANK YOU, it said. PLEASE REMEMBER NOT TO LITTER.
"We won't litter," Gwenny promised.
Che picked a leaf. REMEMBER WHAT THE DEMONS DID TO THE KISS-MEE RIVER it said.
"That was a terrible thing!" Che agreed. "We hope the demons learned their lesson."
The tree's leaves rustled with appreciation. It was satisfied that its ministry was effective.
In due course they settled down to sleep, each nestled comfortably on a broad branch. Gwenny took one last look around before closing her eyes.
Che, the youngest of them, was already asleep. Gwenny saw his dream. It formed in the air around him, like a picture projected on him, so that he was both lying quietly on the branch and being active in the dream. In the dream he was spreading his wings and flying up into the sky. Up, up he flew, gloriously, spiraling in the sunlit air, for it was full day in the dream. He sailed over the ministree and on over the Gap Chasm, which was close by to the north. He felt wonderful; there were little lines of joy and excitement around him, showing his feelings.
Then he looked down and back, and saw the cup of the ministree, where his two friends remained. "I can't desert them!" he exclaimed. He began spiraling down as the dream faded out.
Gwenny was touched. The young centaur had personal aspirations, but he also had loyalty. His dream had shown that more perfectly than words would have.
She looked at Jenny Elf, who had now drifted to sleep. In her dream she was standing on the ground, holding her cat. "I wish I knew the way home," she said.
Then Sammy jumped from her arms and bounded away. "Wait for me, Sammy!" she cried, chasing after him. "You'll get lost!"
The cat leaped through a shimmer in the air and landed in a strange scene beyond it. Jenny followed. It remained fairly dark; the night had not changed to day. They charged through a weird un-Xanthian landscape, where trees were subtly and unsubtly different and bushes were simply not the kind that grew in Xanth. There were two moons hanging in the dark sky. Jenny and Sammy ran up to a huge tree, where several big canine animals lounged. "The Holt! The wolf-friends!" Jenny cried joyfully. She threw herself among them without fear.
People came down from the tree. No, they were huge elves, with pointed ears and four-fingered hands like Jenny's. They embraced her joyfully. "Jenny! We thought you were lost! We feared that something terrible had happened to you! We feared you were dead or cruelly hurt!"
"No, I'm all right, I'm all right!" she replied. "I've had the most wonderful adventure!"
"But what is that thing on your face?" one of the adults asked.
Jenny put a hand to her spectacles. "Oh, I got these in Xanth! They help me to see clearly!" Then she stood still. "Xanth! My friends! I can't leave them! Not while they have such important things to do! And the Good Magician—I have to serve—I promised—"
Then her dream faded out. She was back in the ministree. She, too, was loyal, even in her sleeping fancy. She wanted to go home, but wouldn't until she had met her commitments.
Gwendolyn Goblin closed her eyes, but she felt the tears squeezing out anyway.
Next day they thanked the ministree for its hospitality, promised to treat plants and trees with respect, and set out refreshed. By noon they reached the Gap Chasm. It was as awesome as it had been from the other side.
"But how are we going to get down this clifflike slope?" Gwenny asked, appalled at the magnitude of the challenge.
"I can make us light enough to handle the climb safely," Che said. "All we need to do is find a section where there are sufficient handholds. It may be tedious, but feasible."
"Why not just jump?" Jenny asked. "It would save us time and scratches."
Gwenny laughed. "That far? We're not crazy!"
"But if we are light enough, we wouldn't land hard enough to hurt, would we?" Jenny asked.
Gwenny's outgoing glance collided with Che's incoming glance. The elf might be right!
"Perhaps we could verify it," Che said.
"How?" Gwenny asked, not at all easy about such a descent.
"We could make the C-A-T light, and inquire the fastest and safest way down. If he were to J-U-M-P—"
Jenny looked at Sammy. "You aren't fooling him. He's been listening in on all our lesson sessions, and probably can spell as well as we can."
"But he's an animal," Che said.
"Sammy, find C-H-E," Jenny said, facing away from the little centaur.
The cat leaped onto Che's back.
It seemed that the centaur had been stung by a shy fly this time. His face, neck, and shoulders turned red. Gwenny knew how he felt. Sammy, however, looked smug.
They decided to try it. After Che cooled off, he flicked each of them several times with his tail, making them so light that they had to pick up stones for ballast. Then he flicked Sammy similarly.
"Sammy, find the fastest and safest way down into the Gap Chasm," Jenny said to the cat.
Sammy ran along the brink of the chasm. They followed. He came to a smoothly slanting face of rock where a small river crossed on the way down. The river found a rounded channel farther down and happily coursed along it.
Sammy ran away from the river. He stopped at a tree with leaves as big as any member of their party. They were glossy and looked slippery and tough.
"A toboggan tree!" Che exclaimed. "We must pick leaves for ourselves and Sammy."
They did so, carrying them back to the brink.
Sammy jumped onto his leaf, which then overbalanced and slid into the river. The cat rode the leaf down across the rock face and into the channel.
Jenny jumped after him, riding her leaf. Gwenny was next, and then Che. They were all in the small river, sliding down. It was fun, in its way, but scary, for they were moving very fast despite their lightness. It was the current of the river that was carrying the leaves along at its own pace, not that of their bodies. They clung to their leaves.
The river twisted around, seeking what seemed to be the most devious possible route. It shot through a narrow channel, then paused in a brief pool, then set out again across another slanting stone face. Then it leaped gleefully out into space. "Ooooo!" Gwenny cried with mixed joy and horror. But the leaf landed gently on another slope, and continued down.
Suddenly the river curved and spread out. The world seemed to be set on right angles. Then Gwenny realized that they were at the bottom; it was the normal level land that seemed strange, after the long slide down the side.
They got off their floating leaves and waded to the bank of the river. They were wet around the edges, but were safely and swiftly down. Sammy had indeed known the way.
The base of the chasm was almost level here. There was green grass and a number of bushes and even small trees. There was also a beaten track down the cen
ter. They knew what used that: the Gap Dragon.
Indeed, as they spied the track they felt a shudder in the ground. The dragon was coming!
"Get out your pass, Gwenny," Che reminded her. "We don't want the dragon to get confused and eat us."
Gwenny reached for her pocket—and stood appalled. The pass was gone! It must have fallen out during their wild ride down the slope.
"Oh, no!" Jenny said, looking at her and understanding her expression. Then: "Sammy, find the pass!"
The cat headed back the way they had come. But he stopped at the base of the slope. It was too steep for him to climb. The pass must be somewhere up the side of the chasm—and they could not reach it.
Meanwhile the shuddering was intensifying. Now they could feel a distinct whomping pattern to it. The dragon was definitely bearing down on them.
"Oh, what are we going to do!" Gwenny cried, terrified.
"Sammy!" Jenny called. "Find the best place for us to hide from the dragon!"
The cat did something strange: he hesitated. He took a few steps toward Che, then away, seeming not to know where to go. That suggested that there was no good place to hide from the dragon. This was the bottom of the Gap, his hunting ground; it was to be expected that he would have everything covered.
A column of vapor showed above the bushes to the east. That was the steam of the steamer! In a moment the dragon himself would come into sight, and in another moment he would be upon them.
If there was no place to hide, what was their best course? Was there any way for them to save themselves? Gwenny cudgeled her mind, trying to think of something. But her head was too jam-packed with fright to let any positive thoughts through. She saw Jenny and Che similarly petrified.
The dragon appeared. He was long, low, and sinuous, with six squat legs, vestigial wings, big teeth, and a lot of puffing steam. His front set of legs would lift and jump forward, and then the middle set, and finally the end set, proceeding by rapid whomps, so that his motion resembled that of a racing caterpillar more than that of a serpent. He was moving far too swiftly for them to outrun, however.
She saw Sammy standing there. Too bad she couldn't ask him what they should do! But the cat didn't solve problems, he just found things. When they weren't hopelessly out of reach, like their safe-conduct pass.
The dragon turned to whomp straight toward them, his scales glistening green. Jets of steam shot forward from his nostrils, singeing the foliage of the bushes on either side. The three of them would be steamed and cooked before they ever got chomped.
Then half a thought squeezed through her mind, perhaps shoved from behind by the overload of fright thoughts. "Sammy!" she cried. "Find the best thing for us to do!"
The cat bounded toward Che Centaur and leaped onto his back, digging in his claws. Che, startled out of his stasis, jumped forward—right toward the onrushing dragon. He passed Gwenny and Jenny and came to a stop, petrified again. His little wings fluttered pitifully. Gwenny remembered his dream of flying; in the dream his wings had fleshed and feathered out, but in life they remained inadequate. They were simply too small with too few flight feathers. He could not fly away, even if he made himself light enough to float like a bubble in the air; the wings just weren't ready.
Could Sammy mean for Che to flick them all again with his tail, making them all air light so that they could jump too high for the dragon to get? If so, it was already too late, for Che would be the first one chomped. Anyway, unless there came a good wind, they would just drift back down to the ground where they jumped from, and the dragon would be waiting to snap them up. There weren't even any good-sized trees here that they might hide in, out of reach of the dragon. The chasm was a trap, sure enough.
The dragon whomped up to Che—and stopped. His horrendously toothed mouth opened. His tongue came up. He licked the centaur on the face.
Then Gwenny caught on. "He's a winged monster!" she cried. "Even if he can't fly, he still has wings. Just as you do. And no winged monster—"
"Will hurt me!" Che finished. "How could I have forgotten!"
The dragon eyed Gwenny. He oriented his snout toward her. "Tell him I'm your friend!" Gwenny cried. "And Jenny too! And Sammy!"
"They're my friends, Stanley," Che said quickly. "We are traveling together. We had a safe-conduct pass from Ivy, but we lost it."
The dragon nodded. It was evident that he recognized Ivy's name. Now it was all right.
Gwenny felt her knees turning to wet noodles. She hoped they didn't look too bad. She was glad that Sammy Cat had known what to do. If Jenny had not come along, then neither would the cat have come, and then Gwenny herself might have been steamed and eaten before Stanley realized she was with Che. That thought made her noodle knees turn to mush, which was even worse. Steam had that effect.
Not only did the dragon not eat them, he turned out to be quite friendly, now that he knew they were all right. Maybe he missed his years of growing up with Ivy, who by an odd coincidence had once been the same age that Gwenny and Jenny were now, fourteen. In fact, by an almost unbelievable coincidence, she had also once been Che's age of seven. So the dragon might have a fond memory or two left in his hot skull of young folk. In fact, Gwenny caught glimpses of steamy daydreams he had, of cute little Ivy playing with him, enhancing his scales until they shone like mirrors, and kissing him on his ear. An offshoot dream memory was of him losing an ear, a long time ago, to an ogre, but he had grown it back when he got rejuvenated. Dragon ears, Gwenny knew, were very special things, with magical properties. That was one reason dragons didn't like to lose them.
Stanley guided them to a place where a walkable path climbed up the north slope of the chasm. There had been others, but the dragon had passed them by, perhaps knowing that they led only to caves or just petered out, getting tired long before reaching the top. The dragon knew exactly which ones offered no hope of escape, of course, because he caught and steamed and ate any creatures who tried to flee on them.
"Thank you, Stanley," Gwenny said as they were ready to part. Then she did something daring and naughty: she leaned down and kissed his ear, the way his memory daydream had shown Ivy doing. By yet another unbelievable coincidence, a shy fly stung him at that very moment, and the dragon's scales blushed burning red. Even his steam turned pinkish. But he did not look unhappy.
They started up. Sammy led the way, because he had been told to find the safest path, with Jenny following. Then Gwenny, and Che bringing up the rear again. That was because, as he explained, centaurs had better rears than other folk did. Also, if one of the others slipped and fell, he would be better able to catch and hold that one, making her light so that they did not both go tumbling down into the chasm. Che himself retained most of his full weight now, because it gave him better traction.
The path did try to trick them by sending off occasional offshoots that led either to cliff brinks or nowhere. One offshoot started out nicer than the true path, but they could see how it then turned and tried to go straight up a cliff. That was a mean-spirited path! But Sammy didn't even think about being fooled; he pattered right on up the correct path every time.
It was a wearying climb, despite the way Che lightened them when they came to brief landings where his tail could reach them. Then a cloud appeared and eyed them.
"Oh, no," Gwenny breathed. "I hope that isn't—"
"Fracto!" Jenny finished, her dread echoing Gwenny's own.
"It isn't," Che said. "That's an ordinary cumulus humilis cloud. They don't mean any harm to anyone. They're just curious about landbound activities."
"Fun loving?" Jenny asked. "I'm not sure we'd like a cloud's idea of a joke."
Che smiled. "That's humilis, as in humility, not humorous. No joke."
Gwenny felt her knees softening again with relief.
"Hey, stiffen up your knees," Jenny said warningly as she glanced back. "They look like bread dough."
"Noodle dough," Gwenny said.
"Pasta," Che corrected them.
&n
bsp; "Past what?" Jenny asked.
"Past a bit of dough, but not beyond spaghetti," he explained.
Gwenny concentrated, stiffening them, and managed to maintain her pace.
As they neared the top, the day was fading. It was still bright above, but the depths of the Gap were in deepening shadow, so that they could no longer see the bottom. Gwenny was glad they were going out of it instead of into it; it was gloomy, though she knew that there was no longer much danger down there for them. Unless they fell.
She shuddered, and kept her eyes on the path ahead.
At last they emerged. They walked a reasonable distance from the awesome brink, then dropped to the ground, feeling faint with relief.
"I'm glad I'm not adult," Che said. "Because then I would have had to face that without being afraid."
"Actually, we may be adult," Gwenny reminded him. "We were inducted into the Adult Conspiracy, remember."
Jenny laughed. "That's like the Gap Chasm! Deep and dark and wearisome, and not a lot down there once you see it."
They all laughed, but there was too much truth in it to sustain the laugh for long.
Then they had Sammy find them the best place to camp for the night, and they dined on the wonderful assortment of pies that grew in this region. They even found an old tent left by tent caterpillars; it made a perfect place to sleep, because it was silken throughout, with a layer on the ground to shield them from bugs, and silk hammocks hung from the branches of trees beside the tent.
So they slept in fairly good comfort, and they really needed that after their arduous day's trek. Gwenny didn't see any of the dreams of the others, because she fell asleep as fast as they did and sank down almost as deep as the Gap Chasm. In fact she probably dropped below the dream realm, because she didn't remember having any dreams.
In the morning they discovered that their tent was close to a village. "That would be the Gap Village," Che said, consulting his memory. "I believe there is also a goblin village to the east, if you wish to—"
"No, I think not, thank you all the same," Gwenny said quickly. "It would be run by goblin men, and you know how they are."